The Economics of Thinness

That poor people are more likely to be obese has been often noted. So also that people pay an economic penalty in lower income as their weight rises. What is not often noted is that in western countries, this effect is almost entirely due to women having an economic advantage by being thin.  The income of thin men and obese men is about the same in America, but the income of thin women is significantly higher than that of overweight women. The effect seems to be cumulative, unsurprisingly, as overweight women start off at lower salaries, then get fewer promotions and raises. Even if the effect halted at age 50 (though it does not appear to), they would already be well behind. 

That should give pause to anyone who thinks that poverty can explain why people are overweight or obese, or that being rich helps people to maintain a lower weight. You must then explain why those dynamics seem only to affect women. Perhaps the relationship would look the same for both sexes, but the occupations they do that require or might result in slimness differ...

Except, the author goes on to explain, there isn't good evidence for this. I did dislike a couple of things about the article, including the assumption that Implicit Bias means anything or has real-world correlates.

Rob Henderson (sidebar) suggests that what is missing from the data is socioeconomic status and education, which are much more tied to income for women than for men.  He notes that many wealthy men own car dealerships or are beverage distributors, jobs less likely to rely on an educational credential, while women's incomes track much more closely to their education. Weight might track education among men more closely. 

BTW, I sense that the article was written by a woman even though it does not have attribution. This suggests that there are stronger cues in it than is usual for a typical article.  I haven't analysed what those cues are, except for one as it went past. I might.